account manager

senior account manager

software engineer

territory manager

transportation specialist

ACV Auctions

ACV is a fantastic company to work for in most ways.  Management is responsive and encouraging.  Pay didn't quite work out to what was promised, but that was more of a misunderstanding between myself and the local manager, not the company as a whole. Decent benefits, especially in regards to vacation time.  

The good parts of the job (Vehicle Condition Inspector) are being independent and working with your accounts and scheduling them to best meet their needs, but still having the support of your fellow employees when there is more work then can be handled by one person.  Also, the company continues to grow, which means job security and possible advancement opportunities in the future.

The main negative aspects are as follows:  
1- You can't count on consistent pay because part of your income is based on commissions on vehicles that sell.  Base salary is decent, but the expected range of pay (total income) I was told I would be at and what I actually ended up making were drastically different.

2- You have to use your own vehicle and you will most likely put A LOT of miles on your car.  I expected this, so not a surprise, and they do pay you fairly for mileage reimbursement.  The negative is that managers act like your mileage reimbursement is like additional salary.  It is not "extra money", it's compensation for abusing your vehicle and lowering the resale value from driving so much.  Not uncommon for most people to drive 2 to 3 thousand miles per month.

3-You have to be ok with working outdoors in all weather conditions.  Super hot, freezing cold, rain, snow...you will work in it all.  Again, they tell you this, so no surprise, just gets old.

4-My biggest negative is a personal one, and why i ultimately decided to leave the company.  I find the work tedious and boring.  When I took the position, I thought there was going to be a lot of interaction with customers.  The reality is that most of the job is spent standing in a parking lot for hours and hours looking at old, dirty vehicles and writing condition reports on them.  I knew that the main part of the job was doing the condition reports, but I didn't expect to spend entire days just standing in one parking lot.  If you like being left alone at work, great position for you.  If you like interaction with other people, it will get old quick.  

Understand, ACV is a great company.  Anytime I had issues with anything, someone always helped.  They are young and growing, so there are some "growing pains" to be expected, but they always seem to put their employees best interests first.  The position I worked just wasn't for me, and I hoped to move into a different position to stay with them.  Unfortunately, the remote nature of the job didn't allow positions to open up in my local area other than more of the same job.  Corporate was in another city and that's where most new and different positions would become available.

This was probably my worst experience ever in HR, which I've been for well over 15 years. 

Everyone has their own experience and with 3 recruiting groups working completely solo from each other and with 3 different managers running those groups, don't be shocked that some people have a great experience while others left the company within a year or two. I watched 8 out of 10 recruiters leave in a 6 month span before the newest and current group came in.  Maybe things are much better now, but this review is based on my experience.  Not a single word here is not true. 

The best part was working from home and working whatever hours I wanted. 

I never learned a new skill while at ACV. I was told to just open jobs and fill jobs, that was it. I was told so many times to not worry about a single other thing like efficient processes and to be very careful on which TM you hold accountable to processes and EEO compliance, as some are one text away from the CEO and my manager made it clear I was on my own. 

I never worked anywhere that cared less about what the hiring managers were doing and saying to candidates during interviews. It was normal for a TM to discuss things like age when looking at resumes, deciding on candidates.  This was brought up to senior management so many times and ignored each time.  The answer was to stop requiring interview feedback from hiring managers so there was no paper trail I would assume. 

I never saw a single goal, KPI, a bonus, 401k match, (we all got a raise after the first few recruiters quit), I never had a RSD follow through with promises made, I never had a single review or convo about my actual job performance, and after 18 months my vested stock options were worth $200.  We never had an all HR team call or even a yearly team meeting. 

The HR team is very much a triangle here, if you are on the bottom, don't expect to know anything or get any info on changes until after they happen. 

Me and my recruitment teammate were lied directly to from senior management about additional senior staff being brought onto our recruitment team. We had zero opportunity to apply or be considered, since they posted a recruiter position but hired two seniors instead. But it's not like they worked in the past together or anything.

I could go on and on with examples of why this was the worst recruitment position of my career. 

I have nothing to gain here, none of this untrue. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I was able to cold call on dealerships which I liked because I'm a great salesperson. I sold cars for years, so I knew how to get to the point and not waste the Sales Managers time. It wasn't uncommon while signing up a dealer they would have cars to inspect. No problem, I had a change of clothes and so I changed roles.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
My situation was unique in that my Territory Manager knew about the car buying process from behind the seen. However, the leap to his position without having strong leadership skills may have caused his short-term employment. It was bad timing for him. ACV was aggressively moving. I'm sure in a different area he would have aspired to be a great Territory Manager. Silicon Vallet is not where you break somebody in. You have to know this area and most importantly you have to be a very good and respectful listener and question carefully. This is an exciting place to work. Always cutting edge. They don't deal with retail but for some reason I felt like I was always expected to provide great service. That's something I liked, just because it was wholesale at ACV (actual cash value) didn't mean they weren't entitled to Actual Customer Value ( ACV )

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Always something different. One time I had to go to Daly City in Ca. I had 12 fire trucks and ambulances to inspect. It took 2 days, and it was an adventure

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Trying to write up 3 new dealerships per day and still do 10 VCI's. Never did hit those numbers, but it was a lofty goal. I found that buy planning my route in a circular pattern which ended close to home. Sometimes I would pick up account by just randomly stopping at a dealership I saw while driving.

I gave this company everything I had. I believed in what we were building and worked hard every single day to hit goals and support the team. But the company I started with is not the same one I’m in now. What they’ve done has broken the balance and made it almost impossible for most people to succeed.

They took away regions and combined everything under one system that was supposed to “level the playing field,” but all it really did was create inequality. A few people now have massive opportunity  selling 900+ cars and making thousands a month   while the rest of us are trying to hit 500 with far less volume and no give when we fall short. Everyone is working hard, but not everyone has the same access to opportunity anymore.

Leadership said they were making things better. Instead, we got more pressure, higher goals, and less support. They brought in someone who says he “feels like our father,” but he’s completely out of touch with what’s actually happening. The floor is flooded with new reps, deals are harder to close, and people who’ve been loyal for years are leaving because they feel forgotten.

I reached a breaking point. I cared so much about my work and my results that when they changed everything, it genuinely broke me. I had to step away to get help for my mental health because the stress and disappointment became too heavy. I still care about what we do, but it hurts to see how disconnected leadership has become from the people who made the company successful in the first place. It’s why I had to leave 

ACV grew successful overnight during COVID when dealers resorted to their online platform due to no longer being able to attend in-person auctions. Since the world has gone back to normal, the company has been treading water the past year and have no idea how to get back to where they were. Quick growth has led to the company scrambling in a failing market - resulting in incompetent leadership, heavy micromanagement, and constant changing of roles and job descriptions to make something stick. They reek of desperation and are ruining employee's motivation by their sad attempts to get back to what they once were. Upper management is only concerned about lining their own pockets. They even resorted to threatening employee's jobs if they did not agree to move to completely different roles/departments. The micromanagement and blatant disrespect became stifling. HR is of no help to their employees since they are there to back the company. Sadly, employees are becoming nothing but a number. You know its time to leave when even a co-founder jumps ship. There are much better businesses to work for in the Buffalo region. Run in the other direction unless you want to constantly be treated like a child.

Typical day at work - check phone/email first thing in the morning, respond to emails, make scheduled phone interviews, take a lunch, review applications, end the day - all from home! I'm able to properly balance work/life responsibilities. 
I have learned that to keep up with the growth pace of the company, have to be willing to adapt and make changes rapidly, be available outside of "regular" working hours.
I am grateful to be working with a manager that I worked with previously so we have a good relationship, and she trusts me to work independently without "micro managing." 
Workplace culture - startup type culture, which makes doing my work exciting to be able to discuss the innovation and collaborative company culture.
Hardest part of my job - keeping up with the growth and high volume hiring while also still doing my best to make contributions to the company via getting involved in different projects, continuing my education/training, looking for ways to continue to be efficient and innovative. 
Most enjoyable - collaborating and learning with my team, hearing the excitement from candidates applying to positions and also sharing my excitement and experience with the company!

Unfortunately, this company is not as transparent as they preach. Sad but true.  I understand the philosophy of trying to be consistent across the country (which would make sense)..but there are markets that are larger, more opportunities than others. Maybe, just maybe you tier the markets as a,b, and c...Largest being A. Medium being b etc...attach goals to the lettered markets to be FAIR!!!!!  Some ONLY have large dealer groups that take longer to crack into vs the independently owned dealers. IF you would listen to the field vs only looking at the blueprint of Buffalo you wouldn't have as much turnover. The concept is great but creators might as well do it themselves if they won't listen to the field. 
When you're about the 3rd territory manager in a new market (approx 18 months) you will then have a turn-key territory that the prior slaves mapped out for you. At that time you may be able to make money and hit all your goals.
If you're not drinking the kool-aid and kissing a** you won't be liked nor will you get support. Since when was a career a popularity contest?  
SMH!!! Oh, if you're not related to the creators you won't get promoted. Lots of favoritism too. Stay away and don't waste your time!

What is the best part of working at the company?
I work for the company 5 1/2 years in the beginning it was really good company, but then once they turn public, they did not care about their lower employees at all and they hire territory managers that are not experienced. No nothing about the job if I was you, I would steer clear this company at this point.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
in the beginning nothing but as they started to micromanage more and more higher territory managers that were all about them, not about the team below them steer clear of this company


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
When I first started 5 1/2 years ago, it was good in the last year and a half. It was not good.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Again I say in the beginning it was good. You could get to your cars at 6 AM when it’s 110 in Phoenix Arizona then they changed it all to start time at seven and 8:00 AM. They wanted you in the field till three and four in the afternoon, they don’t care about their employees out in the field.

If you want to have real insight on these reviews- look at the (helpful) ratings on the positive and negative reviews. Look across multiple sites. You’ll see the truth. I used to meet amazing people (customers) every day, was in one area and often done in the mid afternoon, and had a fantastic work-life balance for the pay. What was a job about inspecting vehicles and using my brain became a sales job. Once the new systems/scheduling kicked in I found myself unable to plan anything and putting twice the miles on my car.  Stripped of independence and micro-managed. Pushed to complete work in a distant location multiple times a week rather than once a week, constantly running out of work but ran into the ground anyways. Goodbye biking, hiking, and extra time for chores, grocery shopping, and personal time. Speaking of personal time, good luck getting it, whether it’s time off or personal time at home. That iPhone became the official shackle to the corporation. You cannot escape it.  

It's still in start up mode, so much of the changes should/would be expected. However, "calm persistence" in growing the company and expanding the territories are then followed by very quick and unattainable PIPs. It's very clear that a territory will likely NOT be successful until there have been a least two or three changes in the representative in the territory, which resets quota, allows some build upon the previous work, etc., especially if you're in an area with a very strong competitive presence. ACV is changing the landscape, but there are too many in leadership roles without any real experience in the retail or wholesale side of the equation. Constant comments to the field about pricing vehicles to sell, without understanding new territories and regions do not always operate like the northeast. Some new leadership seems to have a short or non-existent memory and a very limited grasp of the industry ACV serves. Style is abrupt and completely ignores asks for help.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Account manager 6 salaries reported	$66,500 per year
Senior account manager 3 salaries reported	$41,333 per year
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour
Territory manager 5 salaries reported	$84,800 per year
Transportation specialist 3 salaries reported	$26.33 per hour

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